Advocating a Virtuous Voluntaryism

Tag Archives: Romney

I’ve just been making the rounds, and I discovered an obscure, if mostly unimportant story from Australia, and left a comment that I just felt like sharing. It was still in moderation as of 2:07 AM, but I, here, grant you access to it:

“It is the solemn duty of every man aspiring to be free to roll his eyes at those who lord over him, his subjugation by them. And then some.”

Please note that I make an assumption throughout: That, if known about before the election, the Petraeus affair — political scandal with far reaching implications — could have swung in Romney’s favor. In theory, if we use the 332 to 206 electoral votes tally, it need to have only reversed the popular vote in a minimum of four battleground states (Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and New Hampshire for example) for Romney to have walked away with it.

Reading this piece I found out (and maybe this is common knowledge by now, to which I am hopefully only fashionably late) that the leadership of the Republican Party (meaning Eric Cantor, but I don’t doubt for a second he was the only one) knew about the Petraeus Affair before the election (the idea being that the scandal, including its possible relation to the Benghazi incident, which given the fact that. From this I can make many speculations. There may be more possibilities, but these are just the ones I thought of.I may not be the only one making at least some of these connections. The way I went about this may seem strange, but I hope you will be patient with me.

THE HYPOTHESES

1. The leadership of the Republican Party was told not to disclose this information to the public by the FBI. At this point they had two options;

1.a. They could have done what they were told and not disclosed the information.

1.a.1. This scenario may or may not have played out. Either way, it is clear that this information was not disclosed to the public. Why not?

1.b. They could have leaked this information through channels not traceable to themselves.

1.b.1. This scenario obviously did not play out. Why not?

2. The leadership of the Republican Party was told not to disclose this information to the public by the Romney Campaign. At this point they would have had three options;

2.a. They could have done what they were told and not disclosed the information.

2.a.1. This scenario may or may not have played out. Either way, it is clear that this information was not disclosed to the public. Why not?

2.b. They could have openly disclosed this information thinking that it would help the Romney Campaign. The Romney Campaign does not have the same authority as the FBI.

2.b.1. This scenario obviously did not play out. Why not?

2.c. They could have leaked this information thinking that it would help the Romney Campaign. The Romney Campaign does not have the resources or expertise of the FBI to discover the leaker.

2.c.1. This scenario obviously did not play out. Why not?

3. The leadership of the Republican Party decided on its own accord to not disclose this information to the public. At this point they would have had one option;

3.a. They could have kept the information to themselves and not disclosed it.

3.a.1. This scenario may or may not have played out. Either way, it is clear that this information was not disclosed to the public?

THE ANALYSIS

Given that the information was not disclosed, the still possible hypotheses are 1.a., 2.a., and 3.a., and their extensions, 1.a.1., 2.a.1., and 3.a.1. Keep in mind that the “they” is the Republican leadership and the “information” is the Petraeus affair.

1.a. They could have done what they were told [by the FBI] and not disclosed the information.

1.a.1. This scenario may or may not have played out. Either way, it is clear that this information was not disclosed to the public. Why not?

2.a. They could have done what they were told [by the Romney Campaign] and not disclosed the information.

2.a.1. This scenario may or may not have played out. Either way, it is clear that this information was not disclosed to the public. Why not?

3.a. They could have kept the information to themselves and not disclosed it.

3.a.1. This scenario may or may not have played out. Either way, it is clear that this information was not disclosed to the public?

So what we have is three possible reasons why the Republican leadership may not have disclosed this information to the Public before November 6 (Election Day).

In hypothesis 1.a., why wouldn’t they have disclosed the information? The obvious answer, if we assume hypothesis 1.a. is correct, is that the information was confidential and the FBI, who in theory could have prosecuted them, told them not to. But in hypothesis 1.b. I brought up the possibility of them leaking the information in a way not traceable to them. And I asked Why didn’t they just do this? Here, the answer may not be so obvious, so a new round of speculation and hypotheses is necessary. That will come later. Just keep the question in your mind: Why didn’t the Republican Party leadership disclose information that might have helped Mitt Romney win the Presidency?

In hypothesis 2.a., why wouldn’t they have disclosed the information? The obvious answer, if we assume hypothesis 2.a. is correct, is that they did not want to alienate the Mitt Romney Campaign. But this creates two entirely new questions. Would the Republican Leadership rather win the Presidential election and temporarily alienate their candidate, but who might later thank them for their services, or would they rather be on good terms with their candidate throughout the Presidential election but potentially have him lose and fade away from the scenery forever because of it? This question is related to later questions, so I will attempt to answer it when I ask those later questions. The second entirely new question is Why would the Romney campaign itself not wish to have this information disclosed? There are two possible answers. The first is that they thought it would backfire and look like dirty politics. The second answer I will address later. Just bear in mind the question (Why would the Romney campaign not want a disclosure?).

Back to the first answer to the second entirely new question again. I will reformulate that answer into yet another question: Why would they claim that this would backfire and look like dirty politics when it could (at least I assume) easily be made to look like the information was not leaked by anyone even connected to the Romney campaign or the GOP? The first possible answer is that they actually thought it would look like dirty politics, in which case I maintain they were unwilling to take any risks (which begs the question Why is the Romney campaign so mealy mouthed when supposedly the whole conservative movement has their backs and is counting on them to do anything to win?) or they just said that (i.e., they lied) to convince the Republican leadership to keep its mouth shut (which begs the question, one I already asked you to remember, only this time replace “Republican Leadership” with “Romney campaign”: Why didn’t the Romney campaign disclose information that might have helped Mitt Romney win the Presidency?).

Let me refresh once on the questions that I want you to keep asking yourself:

Would the Republican Leadership rather win the Presidential election and temporarily alienate their candidate, but who might later thank them for their services, or would they rather be on good terms with their candidate throughout the Presidential election but potentially have him lose and fade away from the scenery forever because of it?

Why would the Romney campaign not want a disclosure?

Why is the Romney campaign so mealy mouthed when supposedly the whole conservative movement has their backs and is counting on them to do anything to win?

Would the Republican leadership and/or Romney campaign rather have the White House in GOP control or would they rather continue to be glass jawed, tiptoeing, dishonest, feckless, has-been losers just so nobodies toes get stepped on?

These are the only two questions you will now need to remember. Moving on to the final hypothesis. I will remind you that “they” refers to the Republican leadership and the “information” refers to the Petraeus affair.

In hypothesis 3.a., why wouldn’t they have disclosed the information? The answer is far from obvious and by this time you have probably forgotten what hypothesis 3.a. was, so let me put it into the form of a clear, easily understood question:

Why wouldn’t the Republican leadership, assuming neither the FBI nor the Romney campaign, told them not to, just disclose the information of their own accord?

I will now attempt to answer this question along with the two I asked you to remember. For they are in essence, all the same question.

Unfortunately, I must first confess that there is, yet again, more than one possible answer. But I assure you, they lead me to the same conclusion.

First possible answer: The Republican leadership and/or Romney campaign did not have what it takes to win. Whether they were too stupid or too cowardly, they blew their chance of an October surprise because they didn’t think they could handle the disclosure of the information without either incriminating themselves or looking like dishonorable politicians. Despite of the fact that they told their constituents, and let their pundits tell their audiences that Barack Obama had to go in order to save the Republic, they refused to give all that it takes. They were undeserving of the trust that was given to them.

Second possible answer: The Republican leadership and/or Romney campaign did not want to win. They blew their chance of an October surprise because they had deliberately set themselves up for a fall from the start. As conspiratorial as this sounds, it is one of the conclusions I have reached from looking at the evidence. on the whole, it is just one possibility among many and therefore is not necessarily the most likely.

THE CONCLUSION

The GOP Establishment is a cynical group of people, which is why, though they may have wanted Romney to win (and not because they care about this country, but because they are cronies), they decided, perhaps using a cost benefit analysis of sorts, that it was much better for them, all of whom will be comfy and cozy no matter what happens in the next four years, to have this country under the Obama administration for another term and keep themselves free or prosecution, ridicule, or damage to their credibility and reputations. So they either thought there was a genuine difference between Obama (as a liberal) and Romney (as a conservative) but didn’t care because “they’ve got theirs” already, or that there was not enough difference between Obama (a moderate fascist) and Romney (a moderate fascist) for them to actually stick there neck out for Romney.

If there is one thing you take away from this it should be that these men (and women) are NOT public servants. They are thugs of the lowest order who dress, speak, and act nicely, but have no scruples and probably no soul. But I didn’t need the Petraeus Affair to help me conclude that.

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Well, that’s not entirely true. But if they pull it off, they’ll be my ex-countrymen. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I just mean that I will still be stuck here in the good ole US of A. But then, I always considered each state to be its own country, albeit a member state of a treaty known as the United States Constitution.

Unfortunately, I just don’t think that (secession) is going to happen. Just a feeling. I just don’t think that anybody in the upper levels of Texas government, not even the rash worded Rick Perry (Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme and Ben Bernanke is a Traitor, neither of which I disagree with), will let it go through. They have a lot of leverage, but I still doubt they will want to alienate the White House, their non-seceding neighbors, “patriotic” Americans, or “their” own citizens. 90,000 signatures is not a majority of Texans. There are probably just as many, and they aren’t all Democrats, that don’t want to secede, as there are that do. Maybe even more.

This petition will be addressed, as per the fact that it has near four times as many signatures as required by law (25,000). And it will probably be laughed off. By everyone but the signers themselves. I’m not mocking them. I’m just saying that its going to take a lot more than Obama’s re-election before secession is really viable. Remember, the South seceded when Lincoln won with less than 40% of the vote. Obama at least has the advantage of winning with more than 50% (it was, in fact, the perfect example of the 51% rule, which I abhor).

For the time being, my money is on nullification. Odds are if your state is scared to do even this, no amount of petitioning will get them to go one step further and actually renounce membership in the Union. So far, my home state, Montana, is sort of on the right track, though it will be saddled with a sleazy Democratic Governor for the next four to eight years. And he just so happens to be one of the twenty-two State Attorney Generals who refused to fight ObamaCare. Good thing the people of Montana were crazy enough to circumvent him and good thing the only non-county/district level Republican I voted for will be there to take Bullock’s old job and enforce the will of the people of Montana (because 65% is better than 51%).

Now, I hope to see much more of this rebellious behavior. With any luck it will come from state legislatures and not just once-every-two-years ballot referendums.

The fifth of NovemberThe gunpowder treason and plot.I know of no reasonWhy the gunpowder treasonShould ever be forgot.”

That was technically yesterday (Mountain Standard Time), though I when I started this piece I hadn’t gone to bed yet. Today is officially election day. This post is intended to bring a few things to everyone’s attention. Many people already know these things. Some don’t. Either way, as usual, I will put a little of my own spin on it.

First on the election.

On the presidential elections (I still have not voted yet today, but I think I will make it to the polls before they close), voting doesn’t really effect the election outcome unless you are in a battleground state. So I hope most people will be voting their consciences. Voting, however, does send a message, and that message for each voting block is the same REGARDLESS of the outcome. What I mean by this is, if you support someone but vote for someone else, odds are that not only will that vote have no effect on the outcome (unless, as I said, it is a tight race) in terms of who the next president is, but you are also keeping people from knowing what you truly believe. Voting to send a message therefore has much more of an impact than voting to put someone in power.

And now, the rest of the post on ongoing and attempted takeovers of the liberty movement by 1) Occupy Wall Street (this was only a minor and unintended offense on their part), 2) the rank and file of the Tea Party (originally a good thing, but now more or less synonymous with the GOP), and 3) the Kochtopus (who in my conspiratorial mind own Jesse Benton, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, and a good portion of many Republican, Tea Party, and Libertarian groups, organizations, and individuals, though I do not allege that everyone employed are receiving funds from the Koch Brothers is automatically a blind tool).

407 years ago this night was the Gun Powder plot where a group of English Catholics attempted to Assassinate James I of England. All religious considerations aside (I am not a Catholic), it was an act against oppression and thus a tradition has come down to us today, mainly in England, to celebrate the anniversary. I won’t go into any details about how the Fifth of November, AKA Guy Fawkes Day is traditionally celebrated, but I do want to call attention to the man it was named after. But not the historical man because that is fairly boring. It is to the fictionalized, mythologized, romanticized, and later Hollywoodified version that I will point you. Guy Fawkes is a Robin Hood-like hero in these later accounts, and much the same he has captured many hearts and minds. Like Robin of Loxley, he stands against the existing order, the status quo, and evades the unjust authorities, but perhaps unlike him, the whole idea of tyranny. What more could I ask for?

We’ve all seen the Guy Fawkes masks, the ones that come from the movie V for Vendetta. The first people that used them as activists, perhaps to the surprise of many, were in fact Ron Paul supporters. Not the hackers group Anonymous, and not the Occupy Wall Street movement. Just like with the Tea Party movement.

Speaking of Anonymous, Guy Fawkes, and Ron Paul, check out this “leak” and the video below.

Ron Paul raised $4.3 Million on Guy Fawkes Day in 2007. Why a similar money bomb didn’t occur in 2011 is probably due to former Campaign Manager Jesse Benton’s fear and loathing of anything resembling disorder or fringe or passion.

Most Ron Paul supporters had their suspicions of Jesse Benton. Some smelled a rat early on. Other reserved judgement until it was too late.

Adam Kokesh was one in the former category. [Warning: Foul Language!]

He regarded Jesse Benton and Campaign for Liberty (under Benton’s leadership at the time) with disdain from early one, at first for what seemed to be personal reasons, but later what turned out to be a dead-on instinct.

This all reminds me of an historical episode that occurred between another Jesse Benton, and a man who might be considered Ron Paul’s role model against the Central Bank, President Andrew Jackson.

Campaign for Liberty was perhaps the first real Tea Party organization, although in a sense Dick Armey’s Freedom Works (2004), the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (2004) Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform 1985), and the Koch Brothers’ Citizens for a Sounds Economy (1984) all deserve honorable mention.

Even Murray Rothbard can be said to have had a role, albeit a small one.

And speaking of Murray Rothbard and the Kochtopus, I suggest you read some of these links I have done many hours worth of research looking for. I have read a number of them myself. There is some really juicy stuff in there. And it should be required reading for any liberty minded person worried about the corrupting influences to be found in politics, even in the libertarian movement. I don’t know entirely what to make of it all other than that the Koch brothers have done many great deeds for which they should be praised, but all for what appear to be the wrong reasons, reasons, which have also caused them to do a great deal of more sinister things. Perhaps enough to outshine their more praiseworthy endeavors. They are corporate fascists and elitists no less than George Soros and Warren Buffet. They just have a different strategy. Perhaps the most clever and dangerous.

One of the most interesting things (and there were many) I garnered from reading these is the Kochtopus’ love for Central Banking, despite their roots in Austrian Economics. Evokes memories of Alan Greenspan. And why the Koch Brothers put stock in Herman Cain. And why Rick Perry was derided by so-called conservatives when he called Ben Bernanke a traitor. And why their oh so brief ally Ron Paul is so hated by them and theirs anymore.

And it reminds me further of several graphics I have seen floating around on the various End the Fed sites and blogs. A stream of consciousness post like this would be seriously remiss without tying everything together with a few related images.

Please don’t think I’m going all occult on you or anything (I do admit that I came across some pretty dubious sites looking for some of these images). I just really like mythology and history and metaphors and analogies.

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A friend of mine in the Liberty movement, a software engineer named Aleksey Gurtovoy brought these to my attention. The first one is an election day issue. That’s November 6th. I offered to help spread the word. Any readers in Iowa? Regardless, you should all check these out. It’s these kind of things that really count. Local issues. And no doubt these are coming to a town near you. That is if they haven’t already come while you were sleeping.

As a rule, I advocate voting no on any new government spending, I don’t care what it is or what its for. I would be surprised if anyone who valued their own labor thought differently. But I guess they do exist. The informed ones are known as special interests. The uninformed ones are known as marginal voters.

And when, in addition to being something no one can afford, the new expense is for something that does more harm than good, there’s all the more reason to vote against it.

I’m no big fan of the ACLU. Mainly because civil libertarians are too broad and impure a faction. Now, I’m a civil libertarian, but too often that’s where their love of liberty stops, the civil realm. There are more civil libertarians out there that reject economic freedom than those that support it. How else would a silver-tongued demagogue like Obama be elected with 53% of the vote?* But politics makes strange bedfellows. As it does in this particular case. And I suspect that the Iowa ACLU is far less detestable than the national one or the California one as well.

Nonviolent offenses aren’t crimes. It’s simple, that’s all there is to it. Installing a red light traffic camera, in addition to being a waste of time and a distraction from far more heinous crimes, is tyrannical. The last thing the police state needs is another tool it can use to further its powers and trample our rights. Now I’m not saying that this is the end of the world. It pails in comparison to many other issues. But the principles are the same. You still think this is a petty issue? Tell that to the men who threw off King George III because they had to pay a little extra for tea and paper.

*Well, there is another good reason and that is that the Republican Party is a failure. Obama was a referendum on Bush and McCain as much as anything else.

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Did you watch the October 23 Third Party Presidential Debate? Well if you wasted your time watching an Obama/Romney debate or a Ryan/Biden debate, I assure you this won’t be anything like them. See for yourself. If you just want to quickly know what was said, I tweeted throughout the whole thing and captured everything that was said by paraphrasing (occasionally quoting verbatim) what was said by the moderators (Larry King and Christina Tobin), and the four candidates (Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode, Jill Stein, and Rocky Anderson). I threw a couple “lols” and “wtfs” in there, just so you know those are mine. There was a bit of confusion at the beginning about whether the candidates were answering a question or giving opening statements, but after that things turned out fine. You can follow me on twitter @KeimgMeg.